Mandalore is chosen as neutral ground for the first sanctioned meeting between the Republic and Separatists. The goal is to end galactic war, but tensions are high. Lux Bonteri arrives during the talks and accuses Count Dooku of murdering his mother. This causes an uproar, and Lux is quickly shuffled away – Ahsoka guesses correctly that he is now seen as a traitor and will be put to death. Ahsoka locates Lux just in time, and they escape with R2D2. The peace talks quickly disintegrate, and Anakin tells Ahsoka to take Lux to Coruscant. Instead, Lux pulls a gun on Ahsoka and says he’s not a Separatist anymore and he won’t join the Republic - his only mission is to kill Dooku. He zaps Ahsoka and makes the light speed jump to Carlac, where there are people sympathetic to his cause.

Those people turn out to be the Mandalorian Death Watch, a terrorist group. Missing her light sabers, Ahsoka pretends to be Lux’s betrothed and accompanies him to a meeting with Vizsla, the group’s leader. The camp is a disturbing scene, with soldiers shooting at droids to make them “dance.” When one droid repeated “Why?” as its lights dimmed, I felt real sadness. Artoo and Ahsoka are understandably upset, but Lux doesn’t seem to understand what this sort of behavior implies – a troubling disrespect and disregard for life. He gives Vizsla Dooku’s current location.

Artoo is ordered to repair the broken droids so they may be used for target practice again. Again, it was heart-breaking to listen to them plead, “Please reassemble us!” as they dragged their broken bodies eagerly to Artoo. Ahsoka is sent to a ladies’ tent filled with women kidnapped from a nearby town. She makes fast friends with one of the women, Tryla, who mentions that her people are too trusting. She certainly wasn’t kidding – Chieftain Pieter comes to camp and demands the women of his village back. Vizsla promises to return his people by sunrise the next morning. The agreement happens too quickly, and it’s apparent to everyone but Lux and the Chieftain that this exchange won’t end well.

Ahsoka

Sunrise the next day, and I’m wondering if tonight is the night Clone Wars goes all out and shows decapitated heads rolling along the ground. Ahsoka and the other women are transported to town. Tryla turns out to be Pieter’s granddaughter, and Vizsla kills her as he hands her over, then orders the destruction of the entire town. Ahsoka leaps into action, taking down several of the Death Watch before they bind her.

Back at camp, Artoo has reassembled the droids just as the Death Watch members return with Ahsoka. Artoo leads the other droids in a crusade to save Ahsoka and Lux (though honestly, I’m not sure that Lux has really earned the right to be saved. He’s been doing an awful lot of not too very much, in my opinion). Vizsla tries to behead Ahsoka but Artoo storms in and drops her light sabers back in her hands. Ahsoka takes control, ordering Lux back to the ship and taking on the Death Watch. The repaired droids join in, firing on the very people who have been using them for target practice. The three flee, but Vizsla orders his people on after them. They make it back to the ship, but Lux takes off in the escape pod. He promises to meet Ahsoka again.

Ahsoka, R2D2 and Lux

Tonight’s episode was pretty great. The plot is moving along quickly now, and there was some thrilling action. When Ahsoka gets her light sabers back and immediately takes out several Death Watch members without even looking, you realize we’ve only gotten glimpses of what Ahsoka can do. That is, of course, when she’s not posing as a slave or obedient fiancee. Tonight we explored what options are available to you if you’re neither Separatist or a part of the Republic. Where do you fit in when everyone else is picking one side or the other? Hopefully none of us would be as naive as Lux and would at least look into whatever group we intended to fight for. But then again, who knows? People go to extremes for plenty of reasons, vengeance being one of them.